Court Claims Beira Council Did Not Pay Enough

The Sofala Provincial Law Court has come up with another explanation for its decision to evict Beira City Council from 15 of 17 disputed buildings before the matter has been decided upon by the Supreme Court.

Last week the Presiding Judge of the Court, Hermenegildo Jone, told reporters that the eviction order had been issued because the Council, on making its appeal to the Supreme Court, did not pay the requisite deposit.

The Mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, had no difficulty in proving that a deposit had been paid in 2008. The sum which the City Council had deposited then was 160,575.6 meticais (about 4,640 US dollars, at current exchange rates).

Jone has now issued a press release recognising that this money was paid, but claiming that it was not enough. The Court said that the deposit should have been 795,502 meticais. Notified of the problem, the Council rectified the deposit - but by the derisory sum of two centavos, so that the deposit became 160,575.62 meticais.

In this release, Jone accused Simango of trying to politicize a court decision. Simango had claimed that the court was overriding the public interest in favour of the interests of the ruling Frelimo Party.

The dispute over the 17 buildings dates back to the opposition victory in the Beira municipal election of 2003. On taking office, Simango assumed that the buildings where neighbourhood secretariats, the lowest rung in the municipal structure, were operating belonged to the City Council.

Frelimo, however, said that it was the owner of the houses, and that the previous City Council, run by Frelimo, had paid rent. Simango took the issue to court, but, in December 2004, the court found in favour of Frelimo. The City Council appealed, and that appeal has yet to be heard by the Supreme Court.

Up until this month, nothing happened. The neighbourhood secretariats continued to operate out of the buildings, and there was no sign of any ruling from the Supreme Court.

But on 5 July, the Sofala Court ordered the Council to vacate 15 of the 17 buildings. The appeal to the Supreme Court, Jone says, only suspends the original court ruling, if the correct deposit is paid. Since it had not been paid, the Council would have to leave the buildings, even though its appeal was still pending before the Supreme Court.

Jone accused Simango of spreading disinformation, of trying to discredit the court, and of confusing public opinion.

Simango reacted immediately. Cited in Monday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais", he said that the deposit made by the Council was based on the value of the houses as assessed, not by the Council, but by Frelimo itself.

The Court's figure of 792,502 meticais was not the value of the houses, but the compensation which Frelimo was demanding for its inability to use the houses, or receive rent on them. Simango said that previously the court had not demanded this sum from the Council.

The first eviction order decreed that the Council should hand the houses over on 12, 13 and 14 July (last Monday to Wednesday). Attempts to enforce this order were frustrated, because supporters of Simango occupied the buildings.

Now a second eviction order has been issued - the Council has been told to hand over four of the houses on Tuesday, six on Wednesday and the rest on Thursday. But the Mayor's supporters continued to guard the buildings over the weekend, and show no sign of leaving.

Source: allafrica - 2010.07.19